The rapid paces of global warming soil impoverishment and industrialization are greatly decreasing the area of farm land across the globe. Also, the ban on the use of chemical fertilizers for environmental preservation reasons is decreasing worldwide crop production while the population of the world is exceeding the production rate of crops.
Therefore, solving such food problems is a challenge being faced by the mankind. Genetically modified organisms (GMO), prompted by bioengineering techniques, are becoming solution to the food problems.
A genetically modified organism is an organism whose genetic material has been altered using genetic engineering techniques, such as recombinant DNA technology, for example, to increase crops.
Since the development of ripening-delayed, genetically modified tomatoes by Calgene in 1994, the commercialization of genetically modified crops started with the pesticide-resistant soybeans of Monsanto and the insect-resistant corn of Novatis and has progressed to insect-resistant rice (Tu et al., 2000), vitamin A-enriched rice (Ye et al., 2000) and iron-enriched rice (Vasconcelos et al., 2003).
As many as 100 species have been genetically modified (Mohan Babu et al., 2003), including soybeans, corns, wheat, tomatoes, potatoes, and rice. Their cultivation reportedly amounted to 1.7 millions ha in 1996 and increased to 67.7 millions ha in 2003 (James, 2004).
Although developed to give humans beneficial effects including resistance to pesticides, diseases and insects, genetically modified crops are being controversial about hazards to humans and environments due to the flow of modified genes.
The gene flow of genetically modified crops is typically achieved by the migration of genetically modified crops themselves and their seeds and by pollen transportation.
Thus far, pollen transportation has made the strongest contribution to gene flow. Being likely to modify the genetic traits of homologous and allied species, the pollen-mediated gene flow has the risk of disturbing the environmental ecosystem (Karevar et al., 1994).
Pollen-mediated gene flow from herbicide-resistant oilseed rape (Brassica napus) was found in an area 3 km away from the donor field (Rieger et al., 2002), As for herbicide-resistant creeping bantgrass, the distance over which it was dispersed was extended up to 21 km (Watrud et al., 2004).
Given this background, the present invention was conceived to prevent the pollen-mediated gene of genetically modified grass.